I opened the shop around the beginning of August 2017, and decided to close it beginning of October. Two full months, and I learnt a lot. I definitely don’t believe closing the shop was a failure - in fact, I’m planning on re-opening it later this year but with a better plan and some more capital.
What I hope to achieve:
- Earn some money by selling a product online
- Learn digital marketing
How?
- Webinars (check the Resources at the bottom)
- Free online courses and PDFs (again in Resources)
- Testing and evaluating results
Online Shop Creation Steps
Wicked Shopper:
The only shop where the you’ll find products wicked enough to take on the world.
(don’t judge)
1. Drop shipping: An online store without inventory. All products come from a manufacturer in China and are shipped directly to the client’s address. I’m just the middle man/woman.
2. I follow instructions on Corey Ferreira’s website to set up a Shopify website and to install apps like Oberlo.
COST: $0: You start with 14 day free trial on Shopify.
3. I follow this pdf guide, and decide to use their exact steps to make sure it works. What am I selling? Chokers.
4. As the guide says, I find an influencer on Instagram to promote my products. I insert #choker and look for people who post photos with choker. I contact a few of them, and ask them to promote my product in exchange for their very own collection and 15% of profits. One responds, and we build a relationship.
5. Her collection are a set of 4 chokers which she chose, and she offers an exclusive 50% discount. So far, cost: $0.
Problem: She tells me her fans don’t feel the shop is ‘legit’ and although interested, won’t buy. I’m not sure what to do so I send her some free products to properly promote. They haven’t arrived yet. Cost: £13 (4 chokers).
6. Instead of waiting around for the products to arrive and to develop a bit more the money experiment, I decide to try out Facebook Ads. My campaign: Free choker to anyone who comments a funny caption. A few people comment, one gives me her address. I get 12 likes on Facebook.
Cost: £5 (Ad) $2 (free choker)
7. Still no sales. I do more research, and stumble on gold: Jeremy Salem’s case study video where he earns a million dollars in 3.5 months.
What I learn: I shouldn’t specify my store to only chokers, I need to test different products. Testing is done by running $15-20 Facebook ads and seeing if they take off. If after that there are no sales just move on to the next product.
8. New plan: Sell a variety of products on my website, and test them one by one. Products now include chokers, shower loudspeakers, iPhone cases and watches. Test on Facebook.
Cost: First month on Shopify $30.
This keeps getting updated:
6th of September 2017: I am redesigning the website and putting all the products on sale. I buy a few images on Shutterstock and use the very handy editor. Cost: £23
7th September: Placed first ad on Facebook reaching between 12k to 31k people, and to go on for 7 days. Cost: £15
Results: Ad was a flunk. Got 1 like, 4,000 post reach and 8 clicks. No ‘Add to Basket’ and no comments. Feeling a bit let down.
20th September: Change of tactic. Completely redid my online store. Now only sells chokers and focusing on test advertising and making it a good user experience. Now looks like this:
21st September: Launched an ad on the Pearl Choker collection. Cost $5
23rd September: Started Instagram account
Results from the Ad – Reach: 631 people, Link clicks: 12, Reactions: 20, Comment: 1
TOTAL SPENT: £92
What have I learnt?
• Even when I follow a guide step by step, I won’t get the results that person does, simply because I am inexperienced and can’t follow each step precisely. I’m fine with it, this is what a money experiment is.
• When something doesn’t seem to work or you are lost, keep researching. Someone else will have the advice you need to try something else
• People are actually quite interactive with Facebook Ads
Resources
- Corey Ferreira’s website: https://embolden.co/
- Corey Ferreira’s Dropship Business Starter Pack (starts with a webinar which then gives you the guides):
- Get high quality images and edit them: www.shutterstock.com
- Jeremy Salem’s case study video: http://digitaltrafficace.com/new-store-case-study-video
- Great tool for editing photos: www.canva.com
Evaluation
I learnt a lot in the process of creating this online shop. I’m proud to say I tried it out and eventually made a sale, but I was constantly stressed because I had no idea what I was doing and did not have enough time to learn all the marketing techniques. I also didn’t have much money and didn’t like throwing it away on Facebook Ads. However, NO REGRETS. Once I feel more established in the online community I will totally re-open my Wicked Chokers store and make some crazy sales 😉
